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That's the most ornate and beautiful auto parts store I've ever seen. Love the tin ceiling! But if it was a house then what's with the big steel pole support in the center of the room? Dave, did you ever post the picture of the exterior of the house?

I love the same stuff everyone else mentioned, but I wonder if this store was originally a private home? Look at the bookcases and the "tower room" entry. Although the dispay windows mitigate against my theory, they might have been modifications to a domestic structure upon conversion.

[It was a house. I have a shot of the exterior that I'll post soon. - Dave]

You can still get those ceiling panels. The panels are about two feet by two feet, and price seems to depend on whether you want bare tin, clear coated metal, painted, or copper panels. They're popular with people who want to replace or repair an existing ceiling or who want to replicate the look of a Victorian or Edwardian structure. In this case they're probably applied right over the ceiling joists.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.